Badarn Jai

Posted on March 1, 2011

It is still amazing to me that Aum Atichart filmed four great lakorns in one year. He is one talented and busy individual.

In this third installment of 2008, Aum plays a heartbroken, lovesick man named Tor who continues to mourn the death by suicide of his fiancee Aeuy. They were completing their education abroad when after a fight, Aeuy’s body hailed from the apartment balcony to the windshield of Tor’s car. The event caused severe trauma to Tor. Not only was she his first true love, he also witnessed her gruesome death. The reason behind her suicide however still remained a mystery. We do know that Tor never fully recovers from her death, he remained depressed, irritable, severely ill tempered and confines himself in his Bangkok home. His own family was convinced they may never see the old Tor again.

Much to everyone’s surprise however, enters the n’ek who will change everything. Perng, a country girl who is sassy, immature, relentless and at times naive, decides to travel to the big city (Bangkok) so she may visit her friend Nid who happens to be neighbors with Tor. There, she gets accosted by some thugs who thought to rape her. It just so happens that Tor was driving by the scene where they were dragging her into the woods. Their first encounter was not of the most pleasant, after Tor rescues her from the thug she mistook him for being their leader due to his gruff look (can we say judgment!) Yet upon realizing that Tor was the hero, Perng awkwardly thanks him and feels it is her duty to repay him. Yet Tor rudely said that he didn’t really want to help her, they had punched him first so he had had to fight them. As the lakorn unfolds, we see that Tor continues to rescue Perng again and again only to deny that he didn’t want to help her at all. We also see that the ice and depression that surrounded his facade slowly melts away as he banters with Perng. Even his family realized this and were hopeful that perhaps Perng is the key to unlock Tor’s heart and they decided to scheme and meddle to match Tor up with Perng.

The first part of the lakorn introduces the main characters to each other, we know that the two families are very close and they all are interested in seeing Tor and Perng together. We see the feelings mutually develop even though they both deny it. We also see that Tor is still convinced that he may never love another and we see how he combats it internally.When I was watching this first part I remembered being surprised that there weren’t a lot of conflict for the main characters aside from Tor’s inner demon, but boy was I wrong. We first felt secure that the main conflict was in overcoming his depression but we soon realize that the lakorn gets even more interesting.

Tor is still very much confused about his feelings for Perng, most times he appears happy because her sunny attitude was infectious, other times he is jealous because she had a close relationship with her best friends brother, then at times he resents her. Yet upon being the cause of her bodily pain (car accident) and his attraction to her, he told their families that they would marry. At this point we know that Perng is in love with him, otherwise she wouldn’t agree to marry him, but she went into the marriage knowing that he may never love her the way that she wants to be loved. Little did she know that more anguish and pain was soon to come, in way of a home wrecker named Aom, who happens to be Aeuy’s evil twin sister who will manipulate and attempt anything to destroy their marriage.

The lakorn took on a cynical turn, the married couple are always fighting, misunderstanding and all around sad to each other. We see Aom visiting them everyday and Perng not having the backbone to defend herself or fight for her marriage. She was convinced that Tor was still in love with his dead fiancee, hell, Tor was convinced he was still in love with her. It was so frustrating to watch, I was screaming at him half of the time to open his heart and I was yelling at Perng the other times to grow a spine. This goes to show how phenomenal an actor Aum is, he can make you so angry one time, then resolve it all with his half smile and genuine look. One would think that the story could not develop any further and that enough was enough Yet one would be wrong again.

The final act of the story got even more interesting. Upon agreeing to divorce each other, everyone (except for Tor) schemes one final manipulation/lie to help Tor realize that he is in love with Perng and that he needed to let go of the part of him who is convinced he is still in love with his dead fiancee. I for one can see that he fights it, that he is in love with his wife yet feels guilty to break his promise to his ex girlfriend. Will this drastic measure cure him? Will he be able to move on and love Perng fully?

Drastic measure it is. The entire cast fakes Perng’s death and brought an identical person (Khun Keo) to the story. Perng wanted to test Tor, to see if he will fall in love with the person who may look exactly like his wife. Ultimately she wanted to know if he loved Aom because she looked liked Aeuy. Khun Keo was the opposite of Perng, hi-so, dresses revealing, hates nature and definitely has more backbone than Perng. Hell, I liked her more than Perng. Khun Keo wants Tor to fall in love with her than she will disappear so Tor can know the feeling of loving someone who doesn’t love you back. Tor on the other hand, thinks that they are the same person (which they are) and he tests his theory out. We as the viewer start to realize that he isn’t as dumb as the story leads him to be, he finds out on his own that Khun Keo and Perng are the same person.

His reaction was surprising. I expected anger and him not wanting to see her again. Yet his reaction was the exact opposite, which goes to show how much Perng has changed him for the better. Yes he was angry that everyone schemed against him, but for the most part, he was happy because she is still alive and he vowed not to lose her for the second time. Isn’t that the most wonderful thing to hear? Like I said, he can make you hate him at first but then the simple, uncomplicated way that he speaks from his heart, can make you fall in love with him.

The story was very well developed; we are taken on a journey of how the main characters fall in love, faced unimaginable obstacles and yet find their way back to each other. All lose ends are tied and we’ve solved the mystery of Aeuy’s death. This lakorn can bring you heartache, tears, love, laughter and lastly, that everything will work itself out in the end. Everyone is capable of a happy ending if you work for it. This third installment of 2008, Badarn Jai starring the infamous Aum Atichart was unlike anything I’ve seen thus far. Yes, it has one too many manipulations but it also produces grand conflict, redemption (I sure loved it when Perng became Khun Keo, even if it was for a short while) because she gave Aom a taste of her own medicine, and finally, that love can exist everywhere and that your first love can be grand, but not the end all.

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Aum is an amazing actor! i wasn’t the biggest fan of this character himself, but regardless of how i totally disagree with the character, Aum’s acting made it all worth watching. Margie did very well too. She went from taking everything laying down and not fighting her own battles to totally revenge queen!! i

No part of this blog’s contents may be copied and pasted (including copied and pasted on your blog, website, facebook, forums etc) without prior authorization. All contents are written by Lovefia. You are welcome to link to the post/pages but please do not steal.

📚📚An Indonesian bibliophile...crazy for books and poetry...John Donne's cheerleader than Shakespeare...disciple of Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu...an avid book reader...and a book hoarder with super long reading list which is impossible to finish 📚📚